My family and I just returned from five days of vacation at the Oregon Coast, which is my favorite place, particularly when it’s not raining! The noise of the ocean, the steady rhythm of the waves washing in and out, and the view to the horizon combine to give me a sense of peace and perspective. Walks on the beach become the main attraction to focus on, rather than my fears and worries. I think of the beach as my shortcut to feeling close to God. It doesn’t take much effort on my part, other than the drive to get there!
In this past Sunday’s service, Rev. Meredith Dodd preached on John 20:19-31 when the disciples are hiding in fear behind locked doors and Jesus appears among them. In his resurrection appearance to the disciples, the first words out of Jesus’ mouth are, “Peace to you.” After he shows the disciples his hands and sides, he says it again, “Peace to you.” In that locked room filled with tension and fear, Jesus’ appearance and his words of peace must have felt like a miraculous and unexpected breath of fresh air.
Even though the disciples abandoned him at the end of his life, Jesus doesn’t come to them with words of judgment. Even though they don’t seem to have the faintest idea what to do next despite all the time he spent teaching them, Jesus doesn’t express frustration. The first gift he offers them is his physical presence with them in that room, and the second gift he offers is peace.
This scripture makes me wonder about the places where Jesus has met us over the past year and offered us peace, particularly in places where we did not expect to encounter him. For many of us, Sunday worship might share some similarities with my trips to the Oregon Coast – worship is often an easy way to draw close to God, but also a place where we expect to feel at peace. It’s not as surprising to experience Jesus at church as it is to realize we feel the peace of Christ after online worship on the couch or zoom bible study at our kitchen table. Before this past year, I also could not have imagined growing to love congregation members I’ve never met in person. But Christ’s presence seems to have walked through the walls of e-mails and zoom meetings and phone calls to create bonds in ways I would not have thought possible.
After Jesus greets the disciples with words of peace, he then tells them, “Just as the Father sent me, I send you.” These interesting Jesus encounters we’ve had over the past year make me wonder where Jesus might be sending us as a church. If the peace of Christ isn’t limited to being together in our building, how could we intentionally reach out to those who might want to participate but cannot be physically present? If the love of Christ moves in relationships even when we have never physically met, are there people we could include who we never would have considered before? After all these months of meeting Jesus in new and different ways, how might Jesus be inviting us to use what we’ve learned both inside and outside our church walls?